Perhaps not the place to ask... but anyone know of any good books or literature, essays, studies etc. that discuss misanthropy?_________________"War is to man what maternity is to woman. I do not believe in peace, but I find it depressing, and a negation of all human virtues of man."

Céline's "Journey to the End of the Night" is more or less misanthropy to a t._________________Wants/Trades: http://www.nwnprod.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=275935#275935
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And Michel Houellebecq for his visionary and acid view on the misery of the Western Man. It is, however, filled with so many typically French references that foreign readers would miss many tasty bits. Unless ones very familiar with French contemporary culture.

I wouldnt call Huysmans a misanthropy writer. Just a beautifully blasé decadent.

Joined: 11 Feb 2011Posts: 278Location: Between the hammer and the anvil

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:28 pm Post subject:

Thanks, I'm familiar with a lot of this stuff already. By "literature" I didn't necessarily mean fiction. Was wondering if there is anything more academic, less poetic, on the subject...?_________________"War is to man what maternity is to woman. I do not believe in peace, but I find it depressing, and a negation of all human virtues of man."

Thanks, I'm familiar with a lot of this stuff already. By "literature" I didn't necessarily mean fiction. Was wondering if there is anything more academic, less poetic, on the subject...?

Most academics come from a background where they're so full of themselves that it would not be possible to even entertain the idea seriously. For practical reasons they're right, but 99% of philosophy academia is rarely practical.

Try this. Benatar's arguments are often flawed and are based on the 'harm principle' of ethics, but there are few writers within modern Western philosophy who will actually defend the idea that human life is not something favoured. It's worth the read:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Better-Never-Have-Been-Existence/dp/0199296421
At least the advantage of Benatar is that he believes that this is for the sake of a greater moral good, not because he's amongst the teen angst of the black metal scene.

To be honest, covering this issue isn't something that you can deal with very well in this sort of non-fiction. You end up developing any excuse to defend your misanthropic gut-instinct by elaborating on the closest philosophical argument and proving how the acceptance of one (as in Benatar's harm principle) leads to the acceptance of another (that humans should not procreate and should reduce the creation of life). Doing so is one of the most fallacious things that anyone could do.
You're better off with philosopher poets such as Cioran or Schopenhauer who write in aphorisms. It will give you something to consider in many ways by yourself rather than follow a chain of standard logic and it will appeal more to the gut-instinct where misanthropy emerges from in the first place._________________Exitium: Closed until summer MMXV

Thanks, I'm familiar with a lot of this stuff already. By "literature" I didn't necessarily mean fiction. Was wondering if there is anything more academic, less poetic, on the subject...?

the aforementioned Ligotti book:

2010 Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Superior Achievement in Nonfiction. The Conspiracy against the Human Race is renowned horror writer Thomas Ligotti's first work of nonfiction. Through impressively wide-ranging discussions of and reflections on literary and philosophical works of a pessimistic bent, he shows that the greatest horrors are not the products of our imagination. The worst and most plentiful horrors are instead to be found in reality. Mr. Ligotti's calm, but often bloodcurdling turns of phrase, evoke the dreadfulness of the human condition. Those who cannot bear the truth will pretend this is another work of fiction, but in doing so they perpetuate the conspiracy of the book's title. --David Benatar, author of Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence;Department of Philosophy, University of Cape Town, South Africa_________________"14 words: we must secure the depravation of the children and ruin the whole fucking world..."